Motor rebuild...

Excellent. I'm as interested in guys' shops as I am in everything else. Nice set-up.

That shop is an absolute showroom. Big ups on keeping it so well-ordered AND doing work in it. One demerit for Starbucks.

That is Saint Arbuck .. nice shop.  

Yes, great looking shop! I can only dream of having that much space. I am confined to almost (note the word almost) a full half of a smallish 2 car garage in our townhouse, sharing my side with the family lay down freezer- next time we buy an upright! But then I'll lose space on the tool board on the wall; hmmm. When you have such limited space available everything is a trade off. And I don't have a clue where I'm gonna put the table top milling machine...

.Although a lot of the guys here do varying degrees of maintenance/repair work on their cars, not everyone has rebuilt an engine (or even pulled it) and you'll have a bigger audience than you think. And even the guys that have will be watching. We all like engine ****! Will you be doing the cleaning/measuring/assembly yourself or will it be someone else? Do you know what the final combo (or specs) will be?

And am I correct in it's George? Al

Yup, that shop wins the "Shop of the Month Award" from the PCCA!

At this house, I built the absolute largest garage I could fit into available space without running afoul of the town's Building guys so ended up with a 26' sq. 2-car-plus-shop so I'm comfortable, but not a lot of free space.  Would love a sandblasting cabinet (I know of one for free) but no place to put it.  

Stan Galat posted:

Excellent. I'm as interested in guys' shops as I am in everything else. Nice set-up.

Me too Stan!  I love to see the kinds of tools guys are using to accomplish their builds.  Sounds like the start of a good thread.

Jeez !  Hollowell Steel work benches ?  Plenty of space ? You must be in Heaven !

All that space!  I am envious.  And I like the green tins.  I found that for air-cooled VWs, John Muir's book was money.

ALB posted:

. We all like  LOVE engine ****! 

Seems like the censors were at it again- that's engine p0rn!

I told my wife that after we are both retired I want to look for a four car garage with a small house attached to it. As of now I have a two car garage with a large house on a large lot that I can't put a big shop on.

Nice shop and it looks  like you've had a good time with the wall decorations, too. I think I could rent it out to a family of four of it were here in the Islands.

I have a huge garage but would trade some house for more of it. 

Robert M posted:

I told my wife that after we are both retired I want to look for a four car garage with a small house attached to it. As of now I have a two car garage with a large house on a large lot that I can't put a big shop on.

I have been saying that on my end but so far no takers.

Robert M posted:

I told my wife that after we are both retired I want to look for a four car garage with a small house attached to it. As of now I have a two car garage with a large house on a large lot that I can't put a big shop on.

Two miles from me sits an very large stone ranch style home about half a mile from the end of an airstrip (KEKN)  There is a hanger on one side of the home that has the same stonework , about the same size as the home . I told my wife it we win the Lottery that will be our summer WV home.... I will have the hanger area enclosed to store 20 or so cars and still have plenty of room .

Robert M posted:

I told my wife that after we are both retired I want to look for a four car garage with a small house attached to it. As of now I have a two car garage with a large house on a large lot that I can't put a big shop on.

I had this opportunity, and blew it.

In 2006, I build a giant house in a 1-street subdivision about a mile east of town. In 2009, I built a 1500 sq ft barn with a heated floor and a 14' x 18' overheard door behind the house. My kids got married and moved out within a year or two of building it, so my wife and I were rattling around in a 7 BR, 4-1/2 bath house.  We housed everybody and their uncle (3 different displaced families for 6+ months, students from church for entire school years, etc.), but Jeanie always felt weird living in the "big house". I did not. I always patronizingly told her if somebody pulled in my drive and made me an offer, I'd sell it.

In 2015, a friend did just that-- drove in the drive and made me a decent offer. It's a long, strange story, but the bottom line was that I sold with no plan where I wanted to go. Lots of cash in hand, free as a bird.

Anyhow, my dream idea was to build a carriage house-- 4 car garage downstairs, loft above. It would have been no problem in unincorporated Tazewell County, but Jeanie wanted to live in civilization, and we'd done it my way for 30-ish years, so... we built where she wanted to live (in town, in an older neighborhood).

The thing is: most municipalities lack imagination and frown on unconventional ideas. If I'd have known then what I know now, I might've pushed harder, but what I ended up building was not at all what I had in mind. I'll post pictures of the shop when I finally get it finished, but suffice it to say, I'm squeezing 10 lbs in a 5 lb sack. Many, many hoops were jumped though for a shop space that is very, very nice, but quite a bit smaller than what I moved out of. Jeanie's got her dedicated parking, free of metal shavings. I've got a shop that has a 2-post lift, and will hold 3 vehicles in a pinch. Space is tight enough that I hung a 2-stage, 80 gal Quincy compressor from the 12' 8" ceiling above the blast cabinet. You've not yet begun to spend money until you start doing crap like that. The cost per square foot was staggering.

The guy that bought my place is in high cotton, however. He put two 2-post lifts out in the barn, and uses the 3-stall garage on the house as a garage (where's the fun in that?), and is happily frolicking around in a house with 2x the floor space as what I built for similar money.

I've done it both ways now and my observation is this: fitting a working shop on a smaller footprint is exponentially more difficult than just having a nice (normal) garage attached to the house, and a big, beautiful, dedicated out-building as a shop. Squeezing stuff in a small space is expensive and super time-consuming. Good luck with the zoning for more.

There's a reason Americans like big stuff. Turns out, it's just easier and better.

Alan Merklin posted:

Robert M posted:

I told my wife that after we are both retired I want to look for a four car garage with a small house attached to it. As of now I have a two car garage with a large house on a large lot that I can't put a big shop on.

Two miles from me sits an very large stone ranch style home about half a mile from the end of an airstrip (KEKN)  There is a hanger on one side of the home that has the same stonework , about the same size as the home . I told my wife it we win the Lottery that will be our summer WV home.... I will have the hanger area enclosed to store 20 or so cars and still have plenty of room .

 

It's funny you mention that. There is a housing community 3/4 of a mile from us that is a fly-in community. There is an airstrip that splits the community and all of the houses have hangers for garages. The majority of them are fairly large houses. I need to drive through again and see if any of the smaller houses are for sale just so I can get a hanger.

I live on one outside of Vegas!

ALB posted:

Yes, great looking shop! I can only dream of having that much space. I am confined to almost (note the word almost) a full half of a smallish 2 car garage in our townhouse, sharing my side with the family lay down freezer- next time we buy an upright! But then I'll lose space on the tool board on the wall; hmmm. When you have such limited space available everything is a trade off. And I don't have a clue where I'm gonna put the table top milling machine...

.Although a lot of the guys here do varying degrees of maintenance/repair work on their cars, not everyone has rebuilt an engine (or even pulled it) and you'll have a bigger audience than you think. And even the guys that have will be watching. We all like engine ****! Will you be doing the cleaning/measuring/assembly yourself or will it be someone else? Do you know what the final combo (or specs) will be?

And am I correct in it's George? Al

Hi Al, my original plan as of 2 hours ago was to rebuild the 1600cc motor the Speedster came with and putt around for the rest of the summer. At the same time I would be identifying any other mechanical issues that popped up. 

I've now decided to install my 1776 motor instead. This motor came from my 1967 MicroBus. I will be performing everything except crankcase line bore, thrust cut and the heads valve seat and fly cut. Basically all the machining required will be done by a machine shop. The case will cleaned at the machine shop too.  

I'll try to post any somewhat VW specific mechanical processes along with tools that are handy for wrenching a VW motor. I'm very fortunate that I have 2 friends who have owned VW shops and probably a combined experience of 80 years. They have taught me a lot and continue to do so. 

Thank you for the shop compliments fellas. When my wife and I looked for our retirement home a nice shop was high on the list. My wife has her own 2 car garage with a full loft so the shop is all mine The size is 30x60 with 3 large roll up bay doors, I use 25% of the space for music and chilling out area. The rest of the shop is for wrenching. I'll post more shop photos later.

Let's see your shop/garage! 

By the way, it's called the "Manetarium, Fortress of solid dudes". LOL!!

"By the way, it's called the 'Manetarium, Fortress of solid dudes'. LOL!!"

HAH!  I love it! 

@vdubuslife- So George, what's in the 1776? You know, camshaft, heads & porting, carbs, compression; you know, all that stuff- I need to know EVERYTHING! Guys, I have to train another one! When you rebuild the 1600 will it stay a 1600 or get bigger and have more power? I've always thought a great Speedster engine would be a 74 mm stroke crankshaft (original 356, 5 mm longer than 1300/1500/1600 VW) with 356 length rods (2? mm shorter than VW rods), either 90.5's, thickwall 92's or 94's with (depending on budget, cam and power you're looking for) either ported stock valve size (35x32mm) or big valve (40x35) heads and some 40 mm IDF's or Dellorto's.

When I said I could only dream of having that much space I wasn't kidding- I present to you...

                                                                                                                                The Speedster Lair!

Yup, that's my almost half of the garage, along with the paint/work stuff in the corner, bicycles and ladders (which you can't see) hanging from the ceiling. And the pic doesn't show the lay down freezer in front of the car. There is a beer fridge on the other side in front of the family/wife's car, though...

Yoda out _{(for now, but you know back I surely will be!)}

vdubuslife posted:

Let's see your shop/garage! 

By the way, it's called the "Manetarium, Fortress of solid dudes". LOL!!

Ha, I like the name. I'm using 1/2 of the garage to do the engine/chassis work and bodywork in the tarp covered extension to my tool/kayak shed out in the backyard. Dr. Clock named the yard shop "the Blue Lagoon Palace" but my wife just calls it temporary, for some reason. 

It's only survivable because we live in the rain shadow of a 10,000 ft volcano and it's dry most of the time. We all struggle with the limitations we encounter, eh?

This is my slightly stretched 2-car plus shop.  The sewer line for the house goes right behind the shop and the shop foundation is literally within (shhhhhhh......) three feet of it, so this is the biggest footprint I could have.  Nice place to putter, though.....And Kathy’s car was out during the photo op.

Now you can see why I keep saying I have no more space for more tools......

Mine is 19' by 19' inside. Today I was contemplating to extend it by 20' and make it 19' x 39'. Then I'd get a small 2 car with one wide door and keep my 19' x 19' as a workshop! Either that or build a separate shed, which just isn't as useful.

"By the way, it's called the "Manetarium, Fortress of solid dudes". - @vdubuslife

Bwaaaaa , dude, you get a 'Gold Star' on your Man Card! 

@Gordon Nichols wrote- "Now you can see why I keep saying I have no more space for more tools"

I don't know, Gordon, in front of your Speedster I see more than enough room for a small lathe or milling table (or maybe both!)...

Manetarium, Fortress of Solid Dudes

Ok, that's a cool name for garage space...

Gordon Nichols posted:

This is my slightly stretched 2-car plus shop.  The sewer line for the house goes right behind the shop and the shop foundation is literally within (shhhhhhh......) three feet of it, so this is the biggest footprint I could have.  Nice place to putter, though.....And Kathy’s car was out during the photo op.

Now you can see why I keep saying I have no more space for more tools......

Are you sure you did fool us with an optical illusion on Depth in that pict 

It is a good size to do stuff 

30x40' steel barn - 19.5' at center and 14.5' at eves.  Now I need to section part off and put storage space above a small air conditioned hurricane evac living area (45 miles inland from Gulf).  Also need some hanging (steel cables) storage shelves for light items.

My La-Bore-a-tory (as my wife calls it) is only 26 X 26 X 9. I need to work on cars outside in a wall surrounded parking area.  But all bench work is inside.  Some of you have commented on my color choice and I agree. It is very much "So Cal" colors. Sea Foam Green, Lavender, and Burnt Orange trim in small places.

The glass doors on the cabinets turned out to be quite a nice thing ! It's like having shelves that don't collect dust but you can see what's on them thru the doors when you're looking for something. In other words you don't need to open every door to see what's on the shelf.

Ray:  I have about 8' - 9' in front of Pearl when she's parked, giving me a nice area in which to work and large enough to fit a lawnmower or my bicycle on a work stand.  For larger projects and woodworking, I wheel my table saw and vacuum out into Kathy's parking space and have at it and for really big projects I work out in the driveway (and usually draw visitors in from the street).  The quad electrical outlets are all split - 2 outlets go out with the lights, the other two stay on all the time (all ground faulted).

I'll let Chris know about this thread to get photos of the Five Cent Racing Water-Cooled Division's Galactic Headquarters on here.  He has the outline of a few auto race tracks embossed into the benchtops and a more colorful set of cabinets than me.  He also has a lift (that fits kiddie-size electric cars).

WOLFGANG posted:

30x40' steel barn - 19.5' at center and 14.5' at eves.  Now I need to section part off and put storage space above a small air conditioned hurricane evac living area (45 miles inland from Gulf).  Also need some hanging (steel cables) storage shelves for light items.

Wofgang,

Now THAT'S what I'm talking about. Live in your house, park your cars in the garage, work in your shop. It almost always takes a second piece of property, but it's just the best possible solution.

Since I play with cars and do woodworking I want two shops like Wolfgangs. Never happen where I am now but will in the future. Don't know where yet but stepping on Needles and smelling human turds from 30,000 homeless in LA County is getting to be too much. I have always loved the climate in SoCal but the Dems have gotten too liberal and allowed this state to go downhill to the point that it's time to get out while property values are still high.  We pay the highest state gas tax per gallon in the US  ($0.54). Everything out here is expensive and well taxed both coming and going. I pay for the water coming out of my tap and what goes down the drain as well. I paid school tax all my life but never had kids. I paid the maximum contribution possible to Social Security all my working life but got my retirement benefit cut in half because I have other retirement income that pays more.  It just goes on and on.  Sorry for the rant. Couldn't help it this morning. Out of coffee.

We have been looking in Oregon, Nevada, Texas, Arizona, and now Florida next month. I would like .5 to 1 acre. That should be enough to have a really nice "La Bore a Tory"

Good luck with the search, Bruce. I predict great workspace and good coffee in your future.

Swami Pickett

Bruce:   Take a look at Beaufort County, SC when you're on the East Coast.  We found it  far better suited to what we wanted than Florida at way less $$$.  The town of Beaufort, SC, has a great car club, too.  3-1/2 hours north of Daytona.

Gordon Nichols posted:

Bruce:   Take a look at Beaufort County, SC when you're on the East Coast.  We found it  far better suited to what we wanted than Florida at way less $$$.  The town of Beaufort, SC, has a great car club, too.  3-1/2 hours north of Daytona.

Bruce, Gordon is right, Beaufort County, SC is a great area plus less than an hour away the wonderful Hilton Head Island Motoring Festival & Concours d'Elegance is held each fall.  On top of that less than three hours away the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance is held in March.

aircooled posted:

Since I play with cars and do woodworking I want two shops like Wolfgangs. Never happen where I am now but will in the future. Don't know where yet but stepping on Needles and smelling human turds from 30,000 homeless in LA County is getting to be too much. I have always loved the climate in SoCal but the Dems have gotten too liberal and allowed this state to go downhill to the point that it's time to get out while property values are still high.  We pay the highest state gas tax per gallon in the US  ($0.54). Everything out here is expensive and well taxed both coming and going. I pay for the water coming out of my tap and what goes down the drain as well. I paid school tax all my life but never had kids. I paid the maximum contribution possible to Social Security all my working life but got my retirement benefit cut in half because I have other retirement income that pays more.  It just goes on and on.  Sorry for the rant. Couldn't help it this morning. Out of coffee.

We have been looking in Oregon, Nevada, Texas, Arizona, and now Florida next month. I would like .5 to 1 acre. That should be enough to have a really nice "La Bore a Tory"

I agree Bruce. Just find me this weather anywhere else and I'd be gone.

Isn't Brock in Beaufort SC?

I’m with you @aircooled .  The time California becomes “the place I used to live” can’t come soon enough!

We don’t have any place in mind yet, but we’ve seen a fair amount of the USA in the last few years.  I’ve found northern Alabama / Tennessee is very affordable (maybe 10% the cost per acre compared to the California Republic) and there are plenty of places to drive for hours on end.  We also like (in no particular order) Maryland, Idaho, Montana, and parts of the Pacific NW all for different reasons!

My only “issue” with the east and north-east is the humidity.  I spent the last week in Florida and it was terrible, but keep in mind I’m used to a “dry” heat.  Twenty years ago my In-laws bought their dream home in southern Florida.  They made it all of 14 months before they moved north!

One of the great things about this site is no matter where you land, there is probably one or more SOC member relatively close!

In a vain attempt to bring this thread full circle: no matter where I end up, I’d really like to have a shop as nice as @vdubuslife (and plenty other SOC’ers as well) has!

Bruce;

Unlike CA, some states do not tax SSA or retirement plans. I think that Kiplinger's does a report on these  issues.

Art